As technology advances to provide greater mobility, more and more people are carrying and using multiple wireless electronic devices (i.e., an ensemble) for a variety of reasons such as work, education, and/or entertainment. For example, a person may carry and use an ensemble of portable wireless electronic devices including a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a wireless (e.g., cordless or cellular) telephone, a pager, an audio and/or video player (e.g., an MP3 player or a digital video disc (DVD) player), a game device, a digital camera, a navigation device (e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) device), and/or wireless peripherals (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, a printer, etc.).
Many of the wireless electronic devices mentioned above may operate in various modes that require different amount of power. In particular, a wireless electronic device may operate in an active mode, which requires a greater amount of power relative to other operating modes (i.e., high power consumption level). In the active mode, the wireless electronic device may execute an application or a program to generate a visual output on a display screen and/or an audio output via a speaker, to receive a user input via a human interface device, to read and/or write to a memory, and/or to transmit and/or receive communication information for an individual to converse in voice calls, to participate in instant messaging (IM) sessions, to retrieve e-mail or voice messages, to browse the Internet, etc. The wireless electronic device may also operate in an idle or standby mode when an individual is not actively operating the wireless electronic device but the wireless electronic device is readily available to operate in the active mode when necessary. For example, a cellular telephone may operate in the idle mode to monitor for incoming communication such as a voice call, a text message, streaming media, etc. Accordingly, the cellular telephone may require less power to operate in the idle mode than in the active mode (i.e., medium power consumption level). To further reduce power consumption, the wireless electronic device may operate in a sleep mode (i.e., low power consumption level) by disabling or shutting down unnecessary components. For example, the wireless electronic device may automatically operate in the sleep mode when the wireless electronic device is unused for a predefined time period. Alternatively, the individual may manually enable the sleep mode.
As noted above, wireless electronic devices may provide a variety of services and/or a combination thereof. In particular, some of the wireless electronic devices may provide synchronous communication services (e.g., two-way communication occurring at the same time). For example, an individual may participate in a real-time or near real-time communication such as a voice call and/or an IM session provided by a cellular telephone and/or a handheld computer. Alternatively or in addition, some wireless electronic devices may provide asynchronous communication services (e.g., two-way communication occurring at different times). For example, the wireless electronic device may receive a time-delayed message such as an e-mail message and/or a voice message. However, the individual may be asleep, on vacation, or participating in other activities such that the wireless electronic device is inaccessible to the individual and/or the individual is unavailable to use the wireless electronic device. Although existing wireless electronic devices may operate in a sleep mode to reduce power consumption, the sleep mode may not be enabled at the proper time or even at all. In one example, a handheld computer configured to provide asynchronous communication services may continue to consume power throughout the night by operating in an idle mode to receive and provide incoming e-mail messages even though the individual may be asleep and unavailable to receive and/or respond to any of the incoming e-mail messages. Thus, existing wireless electronic devices may consume power even when individuals are not using the devices for various reasons.